2025年3月3日出版的《自然—遗传学》杂志发表了中国科学家的一项最新研究成果，来自浙江大学的张天真团队研究出棉花多倍体化后着丝粒的进化。

在本研究中，课题组报道了一个完整的端粒-端粒（T2T- tm -1）基因组组装，其总大小为2299.6 Mb，并注释了79642个基因。基于T2T-TM-1，检测了A-和D-亚基因组及其相应的二倍体祖体细胞之间的种间着丝粒分化。着丝粒相关重复序列（CRCs）被发现富含吉普赛样逆转录因子。着丝粒大小扩大、重新定位和结构变化发生在多倍体化后。有趣的是，CRC同源物从二倍体的D基因组祖先转移到D亚基因组，侵入A亚基因组，然后进行四倍体化后的增殖。这表明了D基因组祖先的CRC具有进化优势，呈现了多倍体物种在多倍体化过程中以D基因组为载体的着丝粒重复序列遗传，并形成了多倍体物种多倍体化过程中的动态着丝粒格局。

据了解，陆地棉（Gossypium hirsutum）占世界棉花产量的90%以上，作为异源四倍体，是多倍体作物驯化的模式植物。

附：英文原文

Title: Post-polyploidization centromere evolution in cotton

Author: Yan, Hu, Han, Jinlei, Jin, Shangkun, Han, Zegang, Si, Zhanfeng, Yan, Sunyi, Xuan, Lisha, Yu, Guangrun, Guan, Xueying, Fang, Lei, Wang, Kai, Zhang, Tianzhen

Issue&Volume: 2025-03-03

Abstract: Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) accounts for more than 90% of the world’s cotton production and, as an allotetraploid, is a model plant for polyploid crop domestication. In the present study, we reported a complete telomere-to-telomere (T2T) genome assembly of Upland cotton accession Texas Marker-1 (T2T-TM-1), which has a total size of 2,299.6Mb, and annotated 79,642 genes. Based on T2T-TM-1, interspecific centromere divergence was detected between the A- and D-subgenomes and their corresponding diploid progenitors. Centromere-associated repetitive sequences (CRCs) were found to be enriched for Gypsy-like retroelements. Centromere size expansion, repositioning and structure variations occurred post-polyploidization. It is interesting that CRC homologs were transferred from the diploid D-genome progenitor to the D-subgenome, invaded the A-subgenome and then underwent post-tetraploidization proliferation. This suggests an evolutionary advantage for the CRCs of the D-genome progenitor, presents a D-genome-adopted inheritance of centromere repeats after polyploidization and shapes the dynamic centromeric landscape during polyploidization in polyploid species.

DOI: 10.1038/s41588-025-02115-3

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-025-02115-3